America might be getting some help with its border crisis from an unexpected source: Ecuador.

The tiny South American nation has just ended its policy of letting in visitors from Communist China without a visa, a policy that many migrants had used to travel illegally to America through Mexico.

The suspension of visa-free entry for Chinese travelers is “undoubtedly in part a response to U.S. concerns,” migration policy expert Michelle Mittelstadt tells the Sun. 

The policy change follows reports of increasing numbers of Chinese migrants crossing the Southern border. It also comes just a few months after America pledged to help Ecuador in its fight against rising violence from criminal gangs and drug traffickers. 

“Given the close cooperation between the countries right now, Ecuador is undoubtedly favorably inclined to consider changing the visa policy,” Ms. Mittelstadt says. 

“This isn’t the U.S. dictating to Ecuador what’s going to happen. But it’s a cooperative conversation,” she adds.  

Just this year, more than 24,000 Chinese migrants have been reported at America’s border, with China’s withering economy and lack of social welfare among the chief motivators for relocation.  

The figure — which marks a whopping 8,000 percent increase from the number reported in March 2021 — secures Chinese migrants as the fastest growing group crossing into America from Mexico. 

Many of these migrants journey to America by foot — known as “zou xian” or taking the “walking route” — with Ecuador being the first stop. 

Around half of the Chinese nationals who entered Ecuador in recent months either did not leave the country via regular routes or overstayed their 90-day welcome period, the Ecuadorian foreign ministry reported during its policy announcement on Tuesday. They described the trend as “irregular migratory flows.” 

While Ms. Mittelstadt believes that the policy change will work to deter some Chinese migrants, it is unlikely to be a catch-all solution. 

“People who are highly motivated to migrate, whether they are fleeing oppression or coming for economic reasons or family reunification reasons, tend to find other ways.” 

However, she is hopeful that America’s cooperation with Ecuador “speaks to a growing recognition by the U. S. government that you can’t just solve migration at the border.” 

Collaboration with other countries, she says, will only become more important as migration to the America-Mexico border continues to diversify and makes relocation efforts more complicated.

The trend is already being seen. In fiscal 2020, just 12 percent of encounters at the border were of nationals of countries beyond Mexico, Mexico. El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Ms. Mittelstadt says. By 2023, the number rose to 51 percent. 

Migrants who come from countries that refuse to accept the return of their nationals — often referred to as “recalcitrant” — pose additional challenges for immigration policy. 

China stopped cooperating with American deportation efforts in August 2022 partially due to Representative Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan during her tenure as Speaker of the House. 

Though it appears that China may reverse course. Last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that Beijing was “willing to maintain dialogue and cooperation in the area of immigration enforcement with the U.S.” according to the Associated Press.